Cape Town: South Africa will face “tough decisions” as it works to repair its economy after years of stagnation, new President Cyril Ramaphosa said in a sober address on Friday that sought to draw a line under the turbulent rule of his predecessor Jacob Zuma.

Hailing a “new dawn” a day after his inauguration, he promised to fight corruption, which had weakened the state-owned enterprises in Africa’s most industrialized economy, and to trim a bloated cabinet.

Ramaphosa said his government was committed to “policy certainty and consistency”, in contrast to Zuma, who was criticised for policy shifts and unpredictable cabinet changes that rocked domestic financial markets and confounded investors.

The 65-year-old was sworn in as head of state on Thursday after Zuma reluctantly resigned on orders of the ANC.

“This is the year in which we will turn the tide of corruption in our public institutions,” Ramaphosa said in his first State of the Nation address.

“We are determined to build a society defined by decency and integrity, that does not tolerate the plunder of public resources, nor the theft by corporate criminals of the hard-earned savings of ordinary people,” he added.

Ramaphosa’s election as president, which was unopposed in the parliament, has prompted a wave of optimism among South Africans hungry for change after nine years of economic stagnation and corruption scandals. Zuma denies all wrongdoing.

“Tough decisions have to be made to close our fiscal gap, stabilise our debt and restore our state-owned enterprises to health,” Ramaphosa said. He promised to make job creation a priority in 2018.

South Africa’s rand rallied soon after Ramaphosa started his address, trading near its three-year best.

Financial markets have rallied since Ramaphosa took over from Zuma as ANC leader in December, as investors warmed to his pledges to woo overseas investment.

He thanked Zuma for the way he had approached recent events. Facing waning electoral support for his party, Ramaphosa needs to avoid alienating ANC members still loyal to the 75-year-old former president.

In a direct appeal to poorer black voters – the core of the ANC’s support – Ramaphosa said he would aim to speed up the transfer of land to black people. Two decades after the end of apartheid, the ANC is under pressure to redress racial disparities in land ownership where whites own most of the land.

Ramaphosa said he pursued a policy of “radical economic transformation” that will speed up expropriation of land without compensation, but said this should be done in a way that increases agricultural production and improves food security.

Ramaphosa said mining had the potential for growth and jobs.

“We need to see mining as a sunrise industry,” he said.

South Africa’s mining industry has been a major employer and contributed 7.7 percent to the gross domestic product in 2016. The sector also accounts for 25 percent of exports in Africa’s most industrialized economy. South Africa’s GDP is estimated to grow by around 1 percent this year.

‘Same Old Speech’

Africa’s most developed economy needs faster economic growth if it is to reduce high unemployment – currently at 27 percent – and alleviate widespread poverty that has persisted since the end of white minority rule in 1994.

The leader of the opposition, and head of the Democratic Alliance party, Mmusi Maimane, said the president was reading from an old script. “We could have gotten bolder action today, but I heard more of the same stuff,” Maimane said.

The leader of the far-left Economic Freedom Fighters party (EFF), Julius Malema, said he welcomed the commitments to shrink the cabinet and take back the land. “He (Ramaphosa) has a lot of ideas but no plan of how to go about it, but let’s give the benefit of the doubt,” Malema said.

Ramaphosa, a former union leader who played an important role in talks to end apartheid, is expected to announce major cabinet changes in the coming days to replace Zuma acolytes in key portfolios who have been accused of mismanagement and implicated in corruption.

Ramaphosa, who will see out the remainder of Zuma’s presidential term until elections next year, faces an uphill battle to win public and investor support.

He ended his speech by quoting trumpeter and singer Hugh Masekela, known as the “father of South African jazz” who used his music in the fight against apartheid.

“In his song, “Thuma Mina”, he anticipated a day of renewal, of new beginnings. He sang: “I wanna be there when the people start to turn it around”,” Ramaphosa said. Most of the lawmakers there broke into song and danced.

]]>http://tllt.in/south-africas-cyril-ramaphosa-hails-new-dawn-warns-of-tough-decisions/feed/013 Russians Charged With Meddling To Help Donald Trump In 2016 Electionhttp://tllt.in/13-russians-charged-with-meddling-to-help-donald-trump-in-2016-election/
http://tllt.in/13-russians-charged-with-meddling-to-help-donald-trump-in-2016-election/#respondSat, 17 Feb 2018 06:31:08 +0000http://tllt.in/?p=7588Washington: Thirteen Russians and three Russian companies were charged on Friday with an elaborate plot to interfere in the 2016 US presidential election through social media propaganda aimed at helping Republican Donald Trump and harming the prospects of his Democratic opponent, Hillary Clinton, prosecutors announced on Friday.

The indictment, brought by the office of special counsel Robert Mueller, represents the most direct allegation to date of illegal Russian meddling during the election.

It says Russians created bogus Internet postings, posted online as American political activists and fraudulently purchased advertisements, all with the goal of swaying political opinion during the bitterly contested race.

The intent of the meddling, the indictment says, was to “sow discord in the US political system, including the 2016 presidential election.”

The indictment arises from Mueller’s investigation into Russian interference in the election and whether there was improper coordination between the Trump campaign and the Kremlin.

The charges are similar to the assessment of the US intelligence community, which months after the election described a Russian government effort to meddle in the election on Trump’s behalf.

The Russians “strategic goal” was to sow discord, the indictment says. By early-to-mid 2016, their efforts “included” supporting Trump’s campaign and disparaging Democrat Clinton. The charges say that Russians also communicated with “unwitting individuals” associated with the Trump campaign and other political activists to coordinate activities.

Trump himself has been reluctant to acknowledge the meddling. His spokeswoman, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, said Friday that Trump had been briefed on the indictment but there was no other immediate comment.

The charges are the latest allegations arising from Mueller’s probe and represent the first criminal case against Russians. Before Friday, four people, including Trumps former national security adviser and former campaign chairman, had been charged.

According to the indictment, the Internet Research Agency, a Russian troll farm, started interfering as early as 2014 in US politics, extending to the 2016 presidential election.

The defendants, “posing as US persons and creating false US personas,” operated social media groups designed to attract US audiences by stealing US identities and falsely claiming to be U.S. activists.

Jerusalem: Israeli police accusations this week against Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu involving fancy cigars, champagne and jewellery have revived older stories of alleged misbehaviour by the premier and some family members.

The accusations were the most serious against Netanyahu during his long tenure in power, but they follow a series of stories about him and his family that have captured public attention.

To name a few: the family dog biting a lawmaker, allegations that the premier’s wife falsified housekeeping expenses and the broadcast of a recording of their eldest son drunk outside a strip club.

Netanyahu, who has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence, says the attention paid to his family has been grossly unfair and calls many of the stories obvious attempts to discredit him.

Tamar Hermann, an expert on public opinion at the Israel Democracy Institute think tank, said Netanyahu supporters would certainly agree.

But for others, she said, “it’s like having a neighbour whose domestic scene makes you look at it and say, ‘God forbid! I hope it won’t infect my home.'”

In recommending that Netanyahu is indicted, police said he and “members of his household” were given cigars, champagne and jewellery worth about one million shekels (229,000 euros, $283,000) by Hollywood producer Arnon Milchan and Australian billionaire James Packer.

‘Expensive jewellery‘

Netanyahu is alleged to have tried to help Milchan in return, including by promoting his business interests in Israel.

While the police document recommended that Netanyahu is charged with bribery, fraud, and breach of public trust, it made no mention by name of his wife Sara or their son Yair, who also live in the heavily guarded official residence in central Jerusalem.

But dozens of reports since police first interrogated the prime minister in January 2017 state that Sara Netanyahu was aware of certain gifts, with some allegedly delivered at her request.

Haaretz daily referred to “an expensive piece of jewellery requested by Sara Netanyahu as a birthday gift” from Milchan, and said Packer gave Yair free air tickets and paid for hotel rooms.

Yair Netanyahu is one of Netanyahu’s three children from three marriages. He has a daughter, Noa, from first wife Miriam and a younger son, Avner, with Sara. In a separate case, Sara Netanyahu also faces a possible trial over alleged misuse of public funds, which she denies.

The allegations announced last year are that she and an aide falsely declared there were no cooks available at the prime minister’s official residence and they ordered from outside caterers at public expense. The cost amounted to 359,000 shekels, the justice ministry said in a statement in September.

Regular target

A former butler has also accused her of pocketing cash from deposit refunds for empty bottles returned from the official residence between 2009 and 2013, money that should have gone to the treasury.

In 2013, Netanyahu reimbursed the state $1,000 but the butler has said the figure should have been six times higher. In February 2016, a court awarded 170,000 shekels in damages to a former housekeeper who accused a couple of repeated workplace abuse.

The Netanyahus have dismissed the allegations, widely circulated in local media, as a smear campaign. Yair Netanyahu, 26, is a regular target of the family’s critics as a grown man living in the premier’s residence despite having no official role.

Last August, left-wing think tank Molad published “Five things you didn’t know about the heir to the throne Yair Netanyahu”, slamming his lifestyle, particularly the cost to the taxpayer of his round-the-clock protection and government car with driver.

That perk backfired last month when a driver’s recording of Yair outside a strip club drunkenly boasting to a friend about his father’s role in a natural gas deal by his government was widely broadcast.

Yair is heard speaking with the son of Kobi Maimon, a stakeholder in a company that owns a share in Israel’s offshore Tamar gas field.

‘Strippergate’

“My dad arranged $20 billion for your dad — you can give me 400 shekels,” he says. The audio clip also includes talk of strippers, leading Haaretz to dub the affair “Strippergate”.

Yair said he was joking in the audio, said to be from 2015, and acknowledged he had been “under the influence of alcohol”. It was not the first time he drew media fire.

In September, Yair raised eyebrows with a bizarre Facebook post suggesting there was a conspiracy against his family. The post included a series of anti-Semitic images.

Before that, there was what the Jerusalem Post called “Dog poop-gate” in which a neighbour of the Netanyahus complained that she had seen Yair walking the family mixed-breed dog Kaiya and failing to bag its leavings.

She wrote on Facebook that when she challenged Netanyahu to clean up after the animal, he made an obscene gesture with his middle finger. Yair then posted emojis showing a pile of dung and the finger gesture.

Kaiya, adopted from a shelter, first made headlines of her own in 2015 when she bit an Israeli lawmaker and the husband of a cabinet minister during a reception at the Netanyahu residence.

Florida: A troubled teen has confessed to gunning down 17 people at his former high school here, court documents showed on Thursday, as the FBI admitted it had received a tip-off about the 19-year-old gunman yet failed to stop him. Terrified students hid in closets and under desks on Wednesday at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, texting for help as the gunman, Nikolas Cruz, stalked the school with a semi-automatic AR-15 rifle.

As Americans reeled from the country’s worst school massacre since the horror at Sandy Hook six years ago, President Donald Trump suggested the root cause of the violence was a crisis of mental health — and defied calls to address gun control.

Cruz has been charged with 17 counts of premeditated murder, appearing Thursday afternoon via video link before a judge who ordered him held without bond. More than a dozen other people were injured in the shooting spree.

“Today is a day of healing. Today is a day of mourning,” Broward County Sheriff Scott Israel said.

After being read his legal rights, “Cruz stated that he was the gunman who entered the school campus armed with a AR-15 and began shooting students that he saw in the hallways and on the school grounds,” court documents showed.

Cruz arrived at the school in an Uber at 2:19 pm, authorities said. Less than three minutes later, he started spraying multiple classrooms with bullets. At 2:28 pm, he left the campus, according to an official timeline.

Cruz told police that he discarded his rifle — which he bought legally in Florida — and tactical gear in order to blend in with the crowd so he could flee, the documents showed.

After the shooting, he stopped at a Wal-Mart and then McDonald’s, Israel told reporters. He was detained 40 minutes later, after police identified him using school security camera footage.

In a somber televised address to the nation in response to the 18th school shooting so far this year, Trump vowed to make mental health a priority — after tweeting about the “many signs” the gunman was “mentally disturbed” — while avoiding any talk of gun curbs.

Earlier in the day, Trump had asserted that “neighborus and classmates knew he was a big problem. Must always report such instances to authorities, again and again!”

Expelled from school for disciplinary reasons, Cruz was known to be fixated on firearms — and had reportedly been identified as a potential threat to his classmates.

But US authorities themselves were under scrutiny, after the FBI confirmed it was alerted last September to a message posted on YouTube, in which a user named Nikolas Cruz vowed: “I’m going to be a professional school shooter.”

In a statement, the FBI said it had carried out “database reviews and other checks” but was unable to identify the person who made the post.

A mugshot of Cruz depicts an ordinary-looking young man — cleanly-cut chestnut hair, hazel eyes, his face speckled with freckles.

But the information emerging since his attack suggests there were red flags that should have set off danger alerts.

“I met him last year, he was in my class at the beginning of the year and when I first met him, I knew that something was off about him and he was kind of weird,” Manolo Alvarez, 17, told AFP.

Fellow students knew he posted violent messages online, and on Thursday the Anti-Defamation League reported he was a member of a white supremacist group and had taken part in military-style training exercises.

Fifteen people were killed at the high school, and two later died in hospital.

One of those killed was Aaron Feis, a well-loved football coach in Parkland, a city of about 30,000 people located north of Miami where Trump was due to travel to meet the shocked community.

Many others were first-year students at the school like Gina Montalto, who was a member of the school’s winter color guard squad.

Thousands of people turned out at numerous vigils throughout the day. Officials released silver balloons in honor of the 17 victims.

“President Trump, please do something. Do something. Action. We need it now. These kids need safety now,” an emotional Lori Alhadeff, whose daughter Alyssa was among the dead, told CNN.

While the latest shooting reignited questions about America’s gun laws, Trump — the first president to have addressed the powerful National Rifle Association gun lobby — staunchly opposes any additional controls.

Opponents of gun curbs have sought to steer public debate onto the motives — and mental health — of people using the weapons.

Former Democratic president Barack Obama issued a new appeal for action Thursday, insisting “we have to change” and calling for “long overdue, common-sense gun safety laws that most Americans want.”

But many have given up hope of meaningful reform in a majority-led Republican Congress riven by partisan rancor.

Since January 2013, there have been at least 291 school shootings across the country — an average of one a week, according to the non-profit group Everytown for Gun Safety.

“It is pretty clear that we’re failing our kids here,” said Melissa Falkowski, a teacher who squeezed 19 students into a closet at the high school to shield them from harm.

Washington: An American porn star who claims to have had an affair with Donald Trump before he became president now feels free to tell her story, her manager said on Wednesday.

After Trump’s longtime personal lawyer admitted paying $130,000 to Stormy Daniels shortly before the 2016 election, the actress’s manager suggested a non-disclosure agreement had been broken.

“Everything is off now, and Stormy is going to tell her story,” manager Gina Rodriguez told US media.

Trump’s aide and special counsel Michael Cohen has refused to say why he paid Daniels the vast sum but was not, as he claims, reimbursed by the “Trump Organization nor the Trump campaign.”

Trump declined to comment on the issue. The White House has dodged questions about whether allegations of an affair are true, claiming the matter was dealt with during the campaign.

It has also referred any questions about the payment to Cohen. Vice President Mike Pence described suggestions of an affair as “the latest baseless allegations against the president.”

Last month, celebrity magazine In Touch published a 2011 interview with Daniels whose real name is Stephanie Clifford in which she details having “textbook generic” sex with Trump.

She recalled meeting Trump at a celebrity golf tournament in 2006, shortly after the president’s wife Melania Trump gave birth to their son Barron.

Since the alleged signing of a confidentiality agreement, Daniels has denied the affair took place and then appeared to deny making the denial.

The allegations bubbled away before the election but have resurfaced because of a legal case that claims Cohen’s payment may have broken campaign finance laws. The lawyer said he did nothing wrong.

“The payment to Ms Clifford was lawful, and was not a campaign contribution or a campaign expenditure by anyone,” Cohen said. He declined to say whether Trump was aware of the payment.

Watchdog group Common Cause launched the legal action, saying they have “reason to believe” that money was “an unreported in-kind expenditure because the funds were paid for the purpose of influencing the 2016 presidential general.”

The alleged violation of federal campaign finance law “undermines the integrity of democracy in the United States,” a letter signed by Paul Ryan of Common Cause reads.

‘Make America Horny Again’

Daniels has been taking advantage of her newfound notoriety.

Last month, she appeared at the Trophy Club strip club in South Carolina as part of a “Make America Horny Again” tour a tongue-in-cheek reference to Trump’s “Make America Great Again” campaign slogan that will also reportedly take her to several other states over the next few months.

In a recent appearance on the late-night TV talk show “Jimmy Kimmel Live” right after Trump delivered his State of the Union address Daniels deflected questions about the alleged affair and whether she had signed a non-disclosure agreement.

“You can’t say whether you have a non-disclosure agreement. But if you didn’t have a non-disclosure agreement, you most certainly could say, ‘I don’t have a non-disclosure agreement.’ Yes?” Kimmel asked.

“You’re so smart, Jimmy,” Daniels answered. Later in the interview, Kimmel asked, “Have you ever made love to someone whose name rhymes with Lonald Lump?”

Johannesburg: Jacob Zuma resigned as President of South Africa on Wednesday, heeding orders by the ruling African National Congress (ANC) to bring an end to his nine scandal-plagued years in power. In a 30-minute farewell address to the nation, 75-year-old Zuma said he disagreed with the way the ANC had shoved him towards an early exit after the election of Cyril Ramaphosa as party president in December but would accept its orders.

“I have therefore come to the decision to resign as president of the republic with immediate effect,” Zuma said.

“Even though I disagree with the decision of the leadership of my organisation, I have always been a disciplined member of the ANC,” he said. The ruling party had said it would vote him out on Thursday.

“No life should be lost in my name. And also the ANC should not be divided in my name,” Zuma said. The ANC, which replaced Zuma as party leader in December with Deputy President Cyril Ramaphosa, ordered him to step down as president on Tuesday. When he failed to resign on Wednesday, it announced that it would back an opposition motion in Parliament to force him out.

His resignation ends the career of the former anti-apartheid resistance fighter, 75, who has four wives, a sharp tongue and a decades-long history of entanglement in scandals that polarised Nelson Mandela’s “Rainbow Nation”. The rand currency, which has gained ground whenever Zuma has hit political turbulence, soared more than one percent to a 2-1/2 year high of 11.79 against the dollar during the day, as pressure piled on Zuma to resign.

]]>http://tllt.in/jacob-zuma-accepts-african-national-congress-orders-quits-as-president-of-south-africa/feed/0Dutch Foreign Minister Resigns For Lying About 2006 Meeting With Vladimir Putinhttp://tllt.in/dutch-foreign-minister-resigns-for-lying-about-2006-meeting-with-vladimir-putin/
http://tllt.in/dutch-foreign-minister-resigns-for-lying-about-2006-meeting-with-vladimir-putin/#respondWed, 14 Feb 2018 07:17:00 +0000http://tllt.in/?p=7485The Hague:Dutch Foreign Minister Halbe Zijlstra resigned on Tuesday over lying about a 2006 meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin, ahead of a debate on his position in the Dutch lower house of parliament.

Zijlstra was supposed to fly to Russia later on Tuesday for a meeting with his Russian colleague Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday, reports Xinhua.

Before the debate in The Hague, Dutch opposition parties were questioning his credibility and argued Zijlstra could no longer function as foreign affairs minister. Zijlstra concurred and announced his resignation.

“This is by far the biggest mistake in my political career,” Zijlstra said, adding, “There is too much doubt about my functioning as Dutch Foreign Minister. This is my own decision.”

After admitting on Monday to Dutch newspaper de Volkskrant to have lied about the meeting with Putin, Zijlstra still received the support of Prime Minister Mark Rutte and several government parties.

However, his position became weaker on Tuesday after new revelations he not only lied about being present at a meeting with Putin but also misinterpreted the words of the Russian President.

During a speech at a congress of his party the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD) in May 2016, the current Dutch FM claimed to have attended a meeting with Putin and that he heard the Russian President talk about a “Great Russia”.

Contrary to his earlier claims, Zijlstra admitted he was not present at the meeting and that the reason he made up the story about his presence was to protect his source.

This source appeared to be former Shell CEO Jeroen van der Veer, who wrote in an email to de Volkskrant on Tuesday that Zijlstra misinterpreted his words on Putin.

London: A suspicious package delivered to an office in the Houses of Parliament contained “non-harmful” white powder, British police has said.

The Metropolitan Police said on Tuesday they were investigating an incident in the Houses of Parliament after an envelope containing white powder was found in an office, reports Xinhua.

The Police announced that they were informed of a suspicious package at 1:36 p.m. local time that had been delivered to an office within the Palace of Westminster, saying the police are now “at the scene and dealing.”

The police said the powder was contained in a letter which was assessed by specialists and found not to be noxious.

“The office remains closed at this time, but the rest of the Palace of Westminster is open,” the police said in a statement.

Detectives from the Met’s Counter Terrorism Command have been informed and are investigating.

A spokesperson of the House of Commons also said: “Today the Metropolitan police investigated a small package containing white powder on the parliamentary estate.

“The powder was found to be non-harmful.”

The houses of Commons and Lords are in recess so relatively few MPs and peers would have been there, although parliament is also home to thousands of staff and journalists.

]]>http://tllt.in/police-investigate-after-packet-containing-white-powder-found-in-britain-parliament/feed/0Pakistan Tightens Noose Around 26/11 Mumbai Terror Attacks Mastermind Hafiz Saeedhttp://tllt.in/pakistan-tightens-noose-around-26-11-mumbai-terror-attacks-mastermind-hafiz-saeed/
http://tllt.in/pakistan-tightens-noose-around-26-11-mumbai-terror-attacks-mastermind-hafiz-saeed/#respondTue, 13 Feb 2018 06:24:57 +0000http://tllt.in/?p=7434Islamabad: In a move aimed at cracking down against individuals and organisations banned by the United Nations Security Council (UNSC), Pakistan’s President Mamnoon Hussain has cleared an ordinance amending a section of the country’s Anti-Terrorism Act (ATA).

As per Pakistani media reports, the move would enable the authorities to act against UNSC-proscribed individuals and terror outfits, including 2008 Mumbai terror attacks mastermind Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, his Jamaat-ud-Dawa and Lashkar-e-Toiba outfits. Terror groups like al Qaeda and Taliban, which have also been banned by the UNSC, also operate in Pakistan.

The Express Tribune reported that actions against such individuals and organisations may include sealing of their offices and freezing of bank accounts.

Sources in Pakistan’s National Counter Terrorism Authority (NACTA) confirmed the development, saying the ministries of interior, finance and foreign affairs, as well as NACTA’s Counter Financing of Terrorism (CFT) wing, were working together on the matter.

A presidential official also confirmed the development but did not share details, saying the Ministry of Defence was the notifying authority. “The relevant ministry will notify and comment on it,” the official said.

It is learnt that the authorities are bound under international obligations to take measures against such outfits under the framework of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) — an international body that combats money laundering and terrorist financing.

In December last year, the Pakistani government had planned to take over two charities belonging to Hafiz Saeed — the JuD and the FIF — and an action plan in this connection was supposed to be submitted. Last month, the government had also banned companies and individuals from making donations to the JuD, the FIF and other organisations.

Jundullah was the last organisation declared “proscribed” by the government of Pakistan on January 31, 2018, on the NACTA website. However, the JuD and the FIF continue to be on the NACTA “watch list”.

Lashkar-e-Toiba was declared a banned organisation under the UNSC resolution 1267 in 2005. The US State Department in 2014 had named the JuD as a “foreign terrorist organisation”, a designation that freezes assets the organisation has under the US jurisdiction.

India also blamed JuD leader Saeed for the Mumbai attacks of November 2008.